CodePath EES2024 SCHELL GAMES - From Player to Creator: Exploring Careers in Game Development

Hey everybody. Are there gamers out here? If you’re a gamer, show me a heart.

Oh, yeah. I know there are. And how many of you love to learn about developing a game?

Yeah. So, we’re so excited for this AMA session from player to creator, exploring careers in game development by the Shell Games team. We’re so excited to have them here.

But let’s get some of the rules out of the way. Please utilize the chat to have conversations and share your thoughts during the session. Please keep your messages relevant to the topic of the session and note that the presenters and the speakers can see you in the chat.

Our team will be monitoring the chat and questions may be answered live during the session. Remember to drop your questions in the Q&A tab. Following the session, we ask that you complete the brief feedback survey.

Your feedback is super important to us. And with the reminders out of the way, guess what? I’m gonna bring on the Shell Games team.

Come on up. Welcome, Amanda. Hello.

Thank you so much for having us. We’re so excited for this session. Take it away.

Hello everybody in chat. For those of you we already spoken with, welcome back. Amanda and I are happy to see you.

If you don’t know who we are, my name is Carmen Deit. My pronouns are she and her. Been working for Shell Games for about three years and excited to be in the industry for 20 plus years.

I’m welcoming each and every one of you if you’re interested in game development to the industry right now. Just because you’re in school does not mean you don’t have value or you don’t have the addition to come to where we are. Gonna throw it over to Amanda to introduce herself as well.

Thanks, Carmen. Well, hello everyone. It is wonderful to be here and so thankful we’ve had a chance to meet some of you and look forward to being able to connect with more of you as well.

My name is Amanda Lurs. I have been with Shell Games for about two years now and my background is a little bit different than Carmen’s. I actually come from academia.

So I was at a local university here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for 17 years doing undergraduate recruitment as well as some graduate recruitment. So definitely understand kind of the school side, the part that many of you are involved in and have been involved in and do a lot of work with our interns and fellows as well and kind of that recruitment side of things. And so excited to be here, so excited to be able to make that change in industry and be able to jump into the gaming industry.

For me, one of the things I love is that creative side and a chance to help those of you that have a dream of being able to be in the gaming industry. To be able to help make people’s dreams come true. I mean, how can how can you get better than that in regards to a job?

So, absolutely love what I do and love the chance to be able to connect with you all today, too. So now we’re going to take a chance to jump into our presentation. We have a ton of information that we’re going to share, but please know that we will have some time at the very end to answer questions.

So please feel free in the chat to add some questions that might be popping up. We will do our very best to answer as many as we can as well. Because we know there’s a lot of questions out there.

But we’re excited to be able to jump in and get started. So, obviously you’ve had a chance to connect with us, so we won’t go into this anymore, but we, like I said, we have been with both of us have been with the studio for a couple of years in regards to any connections. You’ll see it at the end also on our booth and our page our information regards to LinkedIn as well which we’ll connect with you at the end of our presentation but always love to connect with you through LinkedIn so please feel free to do that so first off many of you might not know much about us in regards to Shell games so let’s take a minute to share a little bit so as a studio we are one of the largest full-size game design and development studios in the country and we’ve been around for about 22 years now.

We were started by Jesse Shell. Some of you that name might be familiar because you might have a textbook that was written by him as well. If you are doing any game design courses or maybe an intro course, oftentimes people kind of connect that that was actually the person who wrote their textbook.

So he started our studio. He was very much involved in games, specifically VR for quite some time. Actually made a change from working on West Coast, wanting to come back to the east coast.

We are in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and he had an opportunity to work at Carnegie Melon University and their entertainment technology center but also still wanted as a professor and he still wanted to continue and have the opportunity to still be able to do work. He loved being able to teach, but you would all then go out and graduate and move on to bigger and better things. And he still missed the opportunity to, you know, continue to work as well as had an opportunity to stay connected to Disney who didn’t want to lose him.

That was a prior place that he had worked. And so that’s basically how our studio started was with five graduates of the etc program with Jesse Shell. So it’s definitely been a part of our history for sure.

And we do all kinds of different games. So, when you think of video games, you might think of just the entertainment side of things. Yes, there’s those.

Jesse is very involved and has been in the past in regards to VR. So, that is a part of our studio. Not the only piece, but definitely a big piece that we are often known by.

And as you can see right down there in the middle, Among Us VR is often the one that most of you are like, "Oh, I totally know that game." So, that was a game that our studio has worked on and created. So definitely that entertainment side of things, but we also do the educational side. So we work with museums, healthcare industry, nonprofit organizations, so many different opportunities where we get to lean into the educational side of things.

And then also all the way to location-based installations at amusement parks. So there’s a good chance you’ve probably ridden one of our rides across the world. So we cover all kinds of things, which is something we are really proud of.

Also, we do a mix of work in regards to client work as well as internal IP. So, you definitely get a chance to experience all kinds of things within our studio, which is one of the many things that we love about the studio. As you can see, in regards to numbers, I like to say we’re not too big, not too small in regards to game size or game industry studio size.

So, 160 people. So, definitely gives you a chance to connect and get to know everyone well. Which is really important as well.

And a couple things that we definitely love to share about our studio. If you are familiar with the gaming industry, you are very well aware that right now, unfortunately, there’s been way too many layoffs in the past year, year and a half time frame. And one of the things that we really pride ourselves on as a studio is that we have never had layoffs.

And that is something that we work very hard to make sure that that continues. That is very much the goal. So that sustainability is really important to us as a studio and our leadership and that’s something we are very proud of.

Another piece I always love to talk about too that can be unfortunately rare in the industry is also that work life balance that is really important to us as a studio. That was actually one of the pieces that really excited me when I was looking for a new opportunity that I got to see about this studio is that work life balance and that it’s very important to the studio. And I can say now that I’m here and I’ve been here for two years that is very much the case.

So, we don’t crunch. And I’m not just saying that because we’re talking to you today, we don’t. So, you have a chance to kind of see that.

And one of the ways that you can actually see it instead of just hear us saying that is very much in how long people choose to stay at our studio. So people have been here 5, 10, 15, 20 years. In fact, four of the five people that helped to start the studio, as I’d mentioned earlier, are actually still here at our studio and are very much in the leadership positions.

So it is definitely proven that that work life balance is important to our studio by the way that people choose to stay here at the studio as well. And as you can see in that last point, one of the things that Carmen and I like to talk about is very much that curious, creative, and kind. So, we’re always looking for curious, creative, and kind people.

Those three characteristics apply to so many areas within professional as well as personal perspectives in regards to what you’re bringing to the studio. So, always like to point that out, too. Now, taking a minute to talk a little bit about our games just because that helps explain a little bit more about some of the cool things that we have been up to.

As I’d mentioned, Among Us VR, that’s actually just about two years. It’s not even two years at this point that it’s out and it’s a huge popular game that we’re extremely proud of and one of our first live ops games that, obviously we’re continuing to create and do new things. With Halloween, in fact, we just released some new, additions to the game as well.

So, definitely if you have a chance to check that out, too. Now, to the left of that, you’re going to see Silent Slayer, which is actually our first jump scare kind of horror game that we’ve had a chance to do. We released that just within the year time frame, and it’s been a really exciting thing to be able to be a part of.

On the other side is Lost Recipes. Very different, kind of that cozy game feel. It’s one of the things that I’ve actually loved doing and it’s a VR game and it’s an opportunity where you get to actually be a part of three different cultures and cook.

So, if you love to cook, this is a great opportunity to do it. And one of the things we’ll lean into a little bit later is really as a studio, we work our very hardest to make sure that every aspect of the game is to the very best of our ability. And that includes the research side of things.

So, in regards to Lost Recipes, with every culture, everything that you see within the game, everything that you hear in regards to music, all the way down to voiceovers are people from that specific culture. So, definitely a fun game to kind of step away and enjoy. If you’ve done the Silent Slayer and you’ve gotten scared a ton, it’s a kind of a great way to relax, too.

Now, the bottom left is Until You Fall. And this speaks into our internal IP. So this was an exciting kind of for us first kind of combat type of experience and the exciting thing too of doing client work that we do as a studio.

A lot of the skills and things that we get to learn from that client work we also get to apply to our internal IP. So that until you fall definitely was a great example of being able to lean into some skills that we’ve had a chance to use in prior opportunities with clients that we got to use on our internal IP2. Next to that is also I expect you to die.

So definitely this is our first franchise. So if you’ve had a chance, if you’ve heard of it, we have one, two, and three. And it’s really kind of a cool puzzle game where it’s very James Bond like where you’re trying to escape or you know address something or you know tend to a bomb.

It is a really fun VR game to be able to be a part of and something we’re really proud of that we actually have a franchise and we continue to have people that keep asking for the next one and the next one. So, who knows what the future could look like. Last but not least, again speaking to some locationbased opportunities.

So, this was a very unique one that we got to do called Cosmic Chase was actually connected to Porsche. And they actually have their own course or driving course out in California. And so they actually wanted us to create a VR game where you actually were in the car, the car was on the course or the track I should say and you were actually driving like you were in the game.

So, it was a very unique situation that we got to create. And again, for us as a studio, one of the things we’re really proud of is we really like to be problem solvers. That’s very much how we see all of the different games and things we work on as a studio.

Yes, VR is a part of what we do and continue to do, but we’re always pushing the edge in regards to technology. So, MR, AR, I like to say any of the RS, we definitely are pushing that edge and wanting to be involved in things. Have some really cool projects we’re excited that we’ll be releasing in the near future that really speak into that.

But again, that problem-solving perspective is very much how we see all of the projects. Oftentimes, a client will come to us with something and say, "Hey, here’s an idea we have. Do you think we can do it?" And our goal is always to say yes and how can we make that happen?

So, now I’m going to switch gears and pass it over to Carmen. Thanks, Amanda. So, as I do a highle overview of this slide, you can take a look at the bottom half, which is some of the clients we’ve had the privilege to work with.

So, we’re going to share our mission statement with you, to create experiences we’re proud of with people we like, so we can make the world a better place. And a little bit of a breakdown about that is we will not be a studio that will be making games that have violence or gore. We want to make games that are exciting to play.

Immersive but allow us to add value and a little bit of smile and sparkle to the world. Diversity makes us strong. We foster diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t add to that the A for accessibility. So, being able to be diverse in not only our culture, but the people that we work with, our experiences will definitely make our games better, and we encourage each of you and those who are in our studio to add those experience and those concepts to what we’re making. As a person who identifies as being neurospicy, I find myself very committed to engaging and being able to learn from others as they learn from me.

And it is wonderful to be supported in that way and not feel like you’re otherred. We believe in the power of mentorship and collaboration to empower the next generation of talent, which guess what? That’s you guys.

We’re excited to potentially have you, whether it’s our studio or another studio. We’re looking forward to what you are going to share with us and the change that you’re going to make. So you see down there, you see Disney, Google, Pixar, Oculus, but you also see Fred Rogers, Pittsburgh Zoo, and N8, NIH, which is not your traditional companies that you would think game developers work with.

But as Amanda said, we do AR, VR, MR, education, medical, and location based rides. So our portfolio is pretty diverse, and we can say that you will never run out of things to do. And the technology is pretty awesome.

Your next slide, Amanda. Now, this slide has a lot of information. I’m going to give you some context.

Go ahead and take a look. As you know, a lot of you are in different various forms of engineering. Some of you are AI, some of you are machine learning, some of you know certain code languages like C++, C, and others.

And you’re wondering how does that fit into game development if at all? Are my skills transferable enough to go into game development? I say yes.

Now that brings us to this slide. We’re going to go over at a high level the disciplines and subd disciplines that we have in our studio. Now these are the big large buckets what we call disciplines.

So we have design, we have art, we have engineering, we have production, quality assurance and educational research. Those are the larger buckets where you would be placed in a department if you’re hired. Now if we go to the next slide, you’re going to see some other things that if you are not, let’s say like me, you don’t like math, you’re never going to code, you can also work in different areas.

So system design, you are going to design the overarching architect of the game such as combat, puzzle structure or dialogue trees. So that means you will use some of your coding, excuse me. And you also will be able to work within the design department.

Who knew design as well? Concept art definitely going to be an artist. You’re going to help the team to envision the overall aesthetic of the game and some of the experiences.

Now environmental art is world building and building within that world. You’re going to see things like lighting which is a subd discipline, VFX which is visual effects which is also a subd discipline. We also have character art and a lot of you know about that character art from reading comic books, manga or other things like that or watching anime.

Audio. So audio has two different buckets. There’s the design of sound effects and there’s composing the sound effects.

Also, you can directly work in voice over. I bet you guys know all about that and I expect you to die. If you’ve seen our YouTube, you know who does the voice in our YouTube.

Now, rigging. Rigging is going to go inside of art as well. And that’s where you’re going to be able to support the character movement.

As you can see in this slide, you’re going to be able to add the bones and the joints of the character, whether that is animals, humans, dinosaurs, whatever it might be. And then you’re also going to be able to help with the animation. So, being able to make that fluid within the game and making sure that you’re not going to be bottlenecking or having issues with the CPU because we’ve all been there when we’re playing a game, whether it’s alpha, beta, or just a game that’s launched and you’ve got that clipping or dreaded lag.

And graphics performance for engineering. Here’s your sweet spot, guys. Optimization of the game within rendering.

Often you’re going to be making coding and shaders and doing those from scratch and or using Unity and plugins from Unreal. You’re going to be able to shift the game’s processing speed so that the graphics run awesome on whatever graphics card you may have. Next slide.

So, now we’re going to switch gears a little bit and talk more about internships and fellowships. So before we even jump into that, I do want to let you know that unfortunately we don’t have any internships or fellowships that are engineering specific. We do have something that is design currently, but we do not have engineering specific at the moment.

Does that mean that that could change in the future? Absolutely. Typically for our studio, because of the size that we are, if we’re interested in internships or fellowships, and I’ll explain the difference in a moment, typically if we’re looking for summer or fall of 2025, we will start that process in January or February of 2025.

So, hang on, hold on. Definitely kind of put on your calendar to check in January and February our website, which is connected to our page as well. So you can see any opportunities that might come about in the future.

Also realize for full-time entry level engineering or anything along those lines. Unfortunately, we don’t have that currently either. We have some senior engineering, but entry level we don’t at the moment, but again, things can change so quickly.

So, it’s always great to stay connected and keep checking back on our website a little bit more specifically. So just want to start that before we jump into anything. So in regards to internships, so with our studio, there are two different options.

An internship is for those of you that are still in school, haven’t graduated yet. Our fellowship program is designed for those of you that have graduated. So you’ve already completed your degree, you are now out of school.

So that is the difference for us. And we’ll explain the fellowship one in just a moment. Now, with our internships and our fellowships, please realize that this is our goal is for you to come in and get the experience.

Now, if you are trying to get into the gaming industry, you know that a lot of times they’re going to say, "Hey, you know, you’re interested in an entry-level job, but they want you to have experience, but somebody’s got to give you the experience before you can actually have it." So our goal with the internships and fellowships, one of the goals is definitely to give you that experience that you need to actually get into the industry. So with our internships, you are coming in like you would any other full-time specific discipline. So full-time engineer and you’re going to be on a project and you’ll be given specific things to do on that project.

So you’re not watching, you’re doing. We also want to make sure that if we’re bringing you in, you are going to have the support that you need. So management, so you’ll have a manager, you’ll have a mentor that’s specific to your project.

Definitely, you’ll have support from your project directors. So our goal is to always make sure that we do wraparound support for you so that you’ll have a chance to be able to do as much learning as you can. Now, with our studio, you’re on a specific project for that period of time.

But one of the things we also love to do with our our internships and our fellowships is giving you a chance to be exposed to all of the other projects because we do so many unique things. We want to make sure that you have a chance to see and experience those as well, but you will stay on one specific project because again that experience is really important. The other really important piece that we like to share is we do not do any remote work.

So, we do require that you move to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the period of time that you are doing the internship or the fellowship. For our internships, as you can see, typically for us, we do them in in the spring or January to May time frame and the fall, August to December time frame. We typically don’t do a summer internship.

And the reason being is it’s just not enough time. We want to make sure that if we’re bringing you in, spending the time to train and prep you, we want to give you a good chunk of time where you’re actually on the project, you’re actually doing work and a part of things. Summer, by the time we get you trained, you have a couple weeks and then you have to head back to school.

So, that’s the reason for our programs. It is like a full-time. So, you do need need to make sure that your school is in support of whether it’s co-op or giving the ability to take that semester off so that you can be involved in that as well.

And obviously, an important piece as you can see with the first part that I didn’t get to just yet is yes, it is for credit for those internships and for the internships and fellowships you are paid. That is important. As you can see in the bottom, there are definitely some different benefits.

Besides just being able to be a part of the studio for sure, transportation, parking pass, sick days, IGDA membership. Again, there’s more things, more of the specifics that we could definitely go into in an interview process if you go down that road, but a lot of different things besides just that opportunity that we like to share. Also another important piece that I do want to take a moment to spend some time on is in regards to the different disciplines.

You’ll see here for our internships there are opportunities within art, design, engineering or production. So the key thing for us to for you to realize is that we are definitely needing for you because you’re coming in like you would a full-time employee in a specific discipline. You need to know which discipline you’re interested in.

Typically, we’re looking for people that are seniors that are just about to kind of complete your process or your education because you finally have kind of figured that out as a freshman or sophomore. You’re still trying to figure that out. You’re taking a lot of those beginning courses.

You’re checking things out as you should to kind of see which area you’re interested in, but by the time you’re a junior and senior, you kind of have that opportunity to be more specific in regards to what area and discipline you want to go into. So we are by disciplines. So if you come in as an engineering intern for example, you can’t have a chance to check out art or check out design.

You are coming in specifically to do an engineering internship. So we always do like to make sure that we explain that to you. Now, in regards to fellowships, as I’d mentioned, our fellowship program is a little bit different because it’s for those of you that have graduated and don’t quite have that industry experience yet.

Our fellowship is starts for at least six months. We guarantee a six-month time frame. It has the potential to go up to nine months depending on projects and other factors that we take into consideration, but we always guarantee the six-month time frame more specifically.

In regards to our fellowships, a little bit different in that obviously the opportunity after those fellowships are completed give you a chance to become a full-time employee. I like to say and this applies for internships as well if you are graduating in the process that it’s possible that those opportunities can lead to full-time employment. Key thing we like to say is it’s not a guarantee by any means but majority of them about 75 to 80% of those internships and fellowships tend to lead to a full-time opportunity.

Obviously many factors come into play with that decision. One of those is definitely going to be is it something that you want? You need to make sure after that experience that it’s something that you want.

Do you want to stay at our studio? Maybe you have bigger plans to move on to a AAA studio, do something else, start your own studio, whatever the case might be. Obviously, that’s a factor you need to take into consideration.

Definitely factors from our side. There can be a matter of obviously the financial piece that’s taken into consideration if we have a need within that specific discipline and department as well. But definitely possible, which is always something that I know people want to know about, too.

See, couple last things in regards to fellowships at the bottom there. We do have spring and summer and fall because they’re not connected to a specific semester or time frame with your school. If it’s a summer, it could start in, let’s say, June, and then it’ll go all the way till December time frame, could be in the fall, September time frame, whatever the time frame is.

Obviously, it’s kind of a six sixmonth window after that. But because it’s not connected to a specific school or a specific semester, things like that, we can definitely kind of make those changes and adapt as needed as well. And in regards to benefits, they are a little bit different.

There’s a couple extra benefits. So you do receive medical, dental, and vision as well, which is a great plus. And then also a housing stipen because again, you have to be here in Pittsburgh.

So because of that, we do offer that as a monthly support to you to help in that adjustment. And always, you know, one of the priorities for myself and for Carmen is giving as many resources and information in regards to relocation. We know it’s a short-term adjustment.

So we want to try to help you as much as we can with information to help assist on that one as well. Carmen, anything else that you’re thinking of that I missed out on? Sure.

I just thanks Amanda. I want to add that we understand that making the transition from wherever you live in the in the country to a new city is not something that everyone is excited about and it might make you nervous. So, we do have cohorts, which means you will start with other people if at all possible.

So, you’re not going to be the only new kid on the block. And as we all know, we’ve all been the new kid on the block. So, you’ll find that everyone in our studio is very welcoming.

It might even be a bit of a culture shock that you’re at a studio where everyone’s very welcoming and everyone wants to get to know you as your unique individual self. So, what that means is if you are neurospicy like I am, you don’t need to come in and mask. You don’t need to be anything but who you are.

And we want you to be just who you are. We know you’re going to make mistakes. We know that there’s things to learn from.

And we anticipate those things will happen. We want to make sure that we set you up with your mentor, your manager, and a lead on your project. So, you have all the people that you need to talk to while you’re working and learning.

Next slide, Amanda. Thanks, Carmen. So, one last piece that actually I’m going to jump in and add as well is in regards to the process for interviews for internships and fellowships.

I know I’ve spoken with a good good amount of you already and that is a question that often came up so I’ll kind of address it now in regards to our internship and fellowship process. So, it’s not a long process. For the most part, it’s more on our end that there’s more of a time.

But it’s really a simple process. Obviously, filling out the application when that application becomes available. After that, we will review applications and decide who we’d want to move forward.

That first interview would be with myself or Carmen. I’m kind of doing that first HR interview. Then after that interview then if we want to move forward with you the next step could potentially be testing.

So for design there could be a test we will send you for engineering specific definitely code test that would be required as well. If you have, you know, obviously GitHub or something along those lines with some of your samples and your work, that is always wonderful to have, but we would still have that test be a part of the process. After we receive those, if we want to move forward from that step, then you’d be meeting with the team within that specific discipline.

So for engineering, you’d be meeting with some of our engineers. Having a chance to be able to talk with them, for them to get to know you a little bit, ask more of the technical side of questions and then also talk through your code test. It isn’t a technical interview in the same sense, more of a I like to say technical conversation.

So more of why did you make the decisions that you made within the test that you provided. So having a chance to kind of talk a little bit more about it. So that’s our process.

It’s not a long process when it happens, but always like to explain that a little bit too. So, last but not least, we definitely want to give you the opportunity to connect to us as well as our studio. You definitely can can connect with us through LinkedIn.

Our LinkedIn information is also within our booth as well. So, you’re welcome to do that. I’m hopefully you’ve already heard and experienced from other people as well as definitely this conference the value of LinkedIn and networking and connecting.

There’s so many opportunities to be able to connect with different people. Even if there aren’t necessarily opportunities that we have available currently, we will post when we do. So, it’s definitely a great opportunity to stay connected to us, but our studio also to see what we’re up to and what we’re doing.

So getting to know us and our studio is also important to make sure wherever you’re interested to make sure that it’s a place you want to work at, it’s very much in the interview process, not just us interviewing you, but you interviewing that specific company, studio, organization as well. You need to make sure that it’s a place you want to be at. So, and to be able to get a little bit of research and inside information of if you want to be at our studio, if you go to our website, you can sign up for our newsletter.

The newsletter is going to give you a little inside baseball as well as keeping up with our latest launches. And then we have employee spotlights and YouTube shows that you might want to come to and interact. And we welcome each and every one of you.

It doesn’t matter what level you are. It doesn’t matter if you graduated or not. We definitely want to hear from you and see you around the interwebs.

I think we’re going to go into our Q&A session here shortly. All right, here she is. Back up.

You guys did such a great job. I love learning about the gaming industry because it’s so different from everything else that we’ve been learning at at EES. So, it really stands out.

And with that, we have so many great questions. Let me start with the first one. Are tech interviews for game developer positions the same as tech interviews for software engineering positions?

I’ll take this one, Amanda. So they’re similar, but they are not the same. So tech interviews for what we call maybe a graphic programmer or a gameplay engineer are going to be slightly different because it’s going to talk more about hardware than software.

And for those of you maybe like some of us in the room who are not familiar with SWE, that’s basically a software engineer. And that’s going to be dealing with a lot more programs and more than likely more people than machines. So there’s going to be a little bit of separation based on technology as well as collaboration using that technology.

Hopefully that answers your question. Awesome. Awesome.

What types of techn technical skills example programming languages game engines are most in demand for developers at shell games? I will also take this one again. So for any studio not only shell games there are two engines right now that are utilized and that is going to be unity and unreal.

The difference between the two is unity has a lot more plugins and things that you can just let’s say drag and drop and you don’t have to directly code whereas Unreal you’re going to have to understand base code language. Base code language for game development can be C++, C, Python, Java, sometimes HTML and others like that. So there is a big difference in the engine in regards to what types of games you can make on which engine.

Right now you’ll see in your favorite game developers, most of them are using Unreal 5 because it looks great. You have a 4K TV, man, does it look good. Now, Unreal doesn’t look as crisp and doesn’t look as sharp, and it can’t run some of those high-end games because of the processing system.

VR can run in both based on the game, the audience, and or how much direct, we’ll say, amount of code it can be put into that little headset. And if you know anything about low poly and high poly, most games that are on console and most games that are on PC use high poly. Low poly is what we use to shrink those polygons down to put them in that little headset.

So, there is a huge difference in compatibility with what we call hardware and software, which leads us back to the original question. Are they different? I love how you can answer these questions.

It’s so great. Does an employee referral help getting an interview at Shell Games or do you recommend focusing on applying early? Go ahead, Amanda.

Sure, that is a great question. So, employee referral, excuse me, employee referral would definitely be in connection to, do you know someone more specifically within the studio? Definitely being able to you know connect with us in LinkedIn is wonderful but if we haven’t had a chance to really connect with you at all personally please realize that that’s going to be a little bit different.

You know definitely being able to connect you to the studio is a wonderful piece. Employee referrals definitely we always love to you know if someone within our studio has you know has shared that someone that they know has applied we always love the opportunity to talk with someone but that’s not going to be the deciding factor and that’s not a big percentage of people that are applying as a studio because of the size that we are Carmen and myself look at all of the applications we are the ones who touch them they are not a computer it is us looking things over because it’s really important to us that personal touch, that personal piece of things is very much a part of our studio and very much a part of our process and how we want to work and function as a human resources team as well as recruiters more specifically. So, definitely if there’s a role that you see you’re interested in, definitely apply.

We would love to have you. Also realize that with applications, we keep applications for a year. So if you realize two months later you want to reapply, you don’t need to.

We already have your application, we save those and definitely like to go to those. So if we have an opening that comes you know available three months later and your skill set matches the things that we’re looking for more specifically, then we’ll definitely make sure that we reach out to you. So hopefully that helps answer that.

I love that. I’ll just add to that. For those of you that are enjoying the convention like we are and after the convention is over and maybe four months from now you decide to put an application in January February please excuse me please feel free to add EES to the referral section so we know that you attended this event and you’re interested in our studio you could also make sure that if you are applying you have samples of your work we love to see your GitHub We love to see your website.

We love to see maybe your art station. Now, it doesn’t have to be huge. It doesn’t have to be all of your work and accumulation.

But put in the things that you’re proud of. Put in the things that you have some descriptive of maybe where you started and what you learned. We love to see that because that gives us an example of maybe your art style, what your preferred code language is, and who you are as a developer or a creative.

Thanks, Josie. You got it. I only have experience in 2D game development in GDI engine and Unity.

Am I still a good fit or having is having 3D experience and Unreal a must? I’ll take this one. First I would say you don’t want to ever refer to yourself as a fit.

We like to say addition because you would be addition to any team. Now finding that right team that utilizes your skills and your talents no one says you have to know 3D. If you prefer 2D then that’s what I would go for.

But if you’re looking to get into VR 3D is the is the go-to method for us to be able to make those characters pop and come alive. Especially when you take into consideration we’re looking at that headset and it’s kind of like having blinders on and you’re going to be turning and the characters if you played Among Us VR will pop out at you. Definitely wouldn’t look great if you’re turning the corner and then you saw that character like this.

So the difference between 2D and 3D is quite significant. Now for engine you can be proficient in either to be able to join our studio. We like you to be able to be a little bit flexible and understand some of Unreal but it’s not necessary or some of Unity.

Now we do engine flex as they say because we have client work and our own IP. So depending on the process and what we’re doing also the software hardware we would use either engine. So I would say that’s a question you have to ask yourself of where you want to apply your skills and start with that.

And it’s okay to ramp up and learn other things as you progress and figure out where and what discipline and game development you want to be in. And that’s an important question that you have to ask yourself before you submit those applications because you’re going to be going into that interview and we’re going to ask you specific questions about your field of interest. I love that.

Sorry. Go ahead. And no, so sorry.

I was just going to add one other piece too to it as well. Is many of you are coming where you’re interested or looking at an internship, fellowship, or maybe an entrylevel position. Realize we are not expecting you to come with a ton of experience yet.

That’s kind of the point is that you are had some education and you’ve had maybe some projects or maybe some game jams or some smaller things that you’ve worked on and you don’t exactly know everything just yet. We’re not expecting you to know everything. We’re not expecting you to have tons of experience.

That is the point of those opportunities is it’s giving that bridge between your education and that opportunity in the professional field to be able to lean into that. So again, showcase what you have. Realize.

Don’t see it as a negative of like, well, I only have blank. No, no, no. I have this. I have this skill set.

I’m bringing this to the table. We all have weaknesses, but let’s focus on your strengths. Always focus on your strengths and what you’re bringing to the table because also one of the other things that we love to see are also those soft skills that are often forgotten at times.

Those are really important when we’re looking at different roles and opportunities. The soft skills, those are things that aren’t easy to teach. We can’t teach them on how to communicate really well.

We can’t teach you you know some of those factors. It’s easier to be able to teach you more on the technical side or something more specific that’s a skill, but the soft skills those are definitely harder for us to be able to teach. So realize that those are definitely strengths.

And so to work on those and prepare for those before your interview as well is just as important. That’s such great tips. We might need to call you back for a mock interview practice.

All right. Hello. Do you have any internships that have a mix of programming and art?

I have an interest in both the arts and programming. Are there any internships that mix these two fields or do they at least work closely together? I can jump into that a little bit.

So, as I mentioned before, unfortunately, the way our internships and fellowships are set up is that it is very discipline specific. So you do need to kind of know which area you’re interested in. Now with that being said, one of the things that Carmen had spoken about earlier that I feel like oftentimes is kind of that bridge between different disciplines is graphics engineering as an example.

That’s oftent times there’s people that love art and have some of that experience but also have a technical experience too and it kind of bridges those two different areas. So I would say look into that to see if that might be an area of interest as well. But specifically for for our studio, we are more discipline specific.

So you would need to have a better understanding of what you are interested in to be able to do one of our internships. Fair. All right.

What unique strength or advantages does Shell Games possess as a studio that works across multiple genres and game types compared to studios that specialize in specific genres or game types? I’ll take that one. The wonderful thing about Shell Games is our diversified portfolio.

The reason why that’s important is because we can come in anywhere from concept to experimental all the way through the development process. And what that means for us is I like to say we get to play with the best and shiny new toys and we don’t have to pay for it because our client pays for those technologies and those courses and the things that we need to learn to be able to progress with the hardware or software. One of the best examples I can give you right now is the new meta headset.

Right? Currently that is very unattainable for most of us for financial reasons but also it has been in development for probably three to five years and what that means is studios like ours who have a really great relationship with meta when it’s in the concept phase we get to tinker and what do creatives and engineers like to do tinker. So for us that’s very important but also having the ability to go into other areas like education, medical or immersive which could mean amusement park rides, theater and other things is not what you usually see for a game development studio like a AAA studio.

We also hire for retention which means we are not going to hire you for a project and then when that project is done unfortunately you have to leave the studio. And we like to see people progress in their not only in their role and their opportunity to learn. But being able to give you the opportunity to stretch your skills, excuse me, and have those stretch goals.

We want you to be able to reach for what’s unattainable and let us know to work with you how to make those attainable. Awesome. Are there any AI tools that are used at Shell Games to assist developers in designing games?

I’ll take that one again. So, AI is something that we are researching and looking further into. We are very very cautious about AI right now because we want to know more as you know it’s very new and it’s new in all over the place and various different things like your cell phone chat GBT I’m sure Alexa has it your refrigerator might have AI to tell you what your shopping list is by now but there are responsibilities that come with AI and there’s so many different companies out there providing it that we want to make sure that we’re utilizing it responsibly and then using it where it fits appropriately into the structure of games that we are making.

That means if we publish something, we want to be 100% sure that we can be responsible with the the tools that we’re putting out into the world. And responsible means the game rating, right? Is it for adults or is it for kids?

Responsible means how much updates and maintenance this may have to take to be able to provide our audience and does that provide our audience at a cost, right? Is that a DLC? Is that something that’s a standalone?

So, from a business standpoint, there are a lot of factors that go into deciding whether AI is something that will be productive for us and our teams. Making sure that there are jobs because we don’t want AI to replace anyone. And then also how do we maintain it?

What are the things that we look at from a financial cost standpoint? I think that answers your question. I think so.

All right. How does one navigate into the game development industry with a background in computer science? Amanda, would you like to take that one?

Sure, I will jump in. So, one of the great things about this industry and our studio, I’ll speak specifically for us, is that your background isn’t your degree is not dependent on what you go into. In fact, there are definitely people within the studio that we’ve hired on the technical side that don’t have a specific degree that’s connected to that area.

So, your degree is not the only thing that’s going to determine your opportunity here at our studio. So, computer science that can apply to so many areas. Definitely engineering is a logical place to have that natural connection, but it could also definitely be design.

There’s a lot of the technical side of things. It could also be art, as I mentioned, graphics, engineering, but there’s a lot of technical art as well. So, there’s a lot of different areas that it could apply.

Again, it’s really where your interest is and what things are you passionate about. That’s always our goal is to make sure that you are pursuing something with our studio in regards to an opportunity because it’s something you’re passionate about, not just because, well, I have this degree, so it logically makes sense for me to do this. We want to help you find something that you’re passionate about because that passion, that perspective you’re bringing, you’re going to bring to the studio and that’s exciting and it’s exciting to have someone that knows an area that they’re interested in and how can they impact the studio.

Again, our mission statement that I love because it’s simple. It’s how can we make the world a better place? And to be able to work with people that are excited about it and passionate about what they’re doing.

So, hopefully that kind of help answers your question, at least in regards to our studio specifically. I love that mission statement. That’s a great one.

All right. Does your company have any citizenship requirements or are you open to sponsoring students from other countries who have studied in the US? Additionally, after completing a six-month fellowship, what is the likelihood of not being offered a full-time position?

Great question. I’ll jump into that one. So, in regards to sponsorship for full-time employees, internships or fellowships, we do not do sponsorship.

So, you would need to have your whether it’s your F1 student visa, whatever the visa is, you would need to make sure on your end that you are prepared to be able to have that internship or fellowship for that period of time. Now, with that being said, full-time opportunities, full-time roles, we do support and offer sponsorship. So we would help you through that process.

There are definitely some pieces to that though that are completely out of our control in regards to you know actually getting that visa. So having time so let’s say some of you might be on you have a STEM OPT. So that means you have three years if I remember correctly after you graduate to be able to still be working.

So to be able to have those three years to be able to work towards that sponsorship will always be a help. But those are questions we’re definitely going to ask and talk about in the application or excuse me, the interview process. We do actually ask you that in our application specifically so that we can know that information ahead of time because we know obviously that’s a key factor in your ability to be able to have a role whether it’s an internship, fellowship, or a full-time opportunity at our studio.

And the second piece I’m blanking on what that second piece of the question was, Josie, no problem. I I wondered if you would Additionally, after completing a six-month fellowship, what is the likelihood of not being offered a full-time position? Right.

As I mentioned before, it is not a guarantee that an internship or fellowship will lead to a full-time opportunity. There are many factors that come into play for that. As I’d mentioned, about 75 to 80% of them do turn into that.

So, obviously, the opposite of that would be the ones that did not, but there are many factors that come into play as I’d mentioned. So, definitely your desire to stay. For us as a studio to feel like it’s do we want to have you stay?

But also the financial side of it. Do we financially have the funds to be able to do that? Again, that’s just the sustainability and s is really important to us.

So those are always factors we take into consideration as well as the need as a studio. Do we have a need within that specific discipline that we need to bring someone in? So those are all the different factors that take that are taken into consideration and it’s a conversation we have with you throughout your your entire internship and fellowship program.

So it’s not like we wait till the very end last week and you’re like I don’t know do I have one? Do I not? And we’re like guess.

It is very much a conversation we have with you throughout your entire process. So literally halfway through we start talking and saying hey are you interested? What do you think?

Would you want to stay? And so typically for us about six to eight weeks before your completion of your internship or fellowship, we’d be having that discussion. So if an opportunity is not happening for whatever the reason, then we want to do our best to help assist you to find something else to give you some resources to look over your resume, you know, do some things that we can to assist you as as much as we can in preparation for you looking for something somewhere else.

Great answer. All right. So, here’s one of my favorite questions.

What’s the best thing about working for Shell Games? I’ll go first. One of the best things for me, working in Shell Games, and being what I lovingly call a dynamic recruiter who is certified in diversity, and, identifies as bipac and neurospicy is being able to be at a studio where I can be authentic.

I do not have to be staunch or professional what you would think a recruiter is, you know, be a robot and just hammer questions into someone. I have the ability to not only ask questions but have input in our best practices whether it’s my department or another department and we are a servant leadership focused studio which means we lead from the bottom to the top. So most all decisions are talked about as a group and for our size company that’s pretty amazing.

A lot of larger companies whether it’s game development or not you kind of get put into what we call an individual contributor role where your head’s down and you’re working. In this case we’re highly collaborative across all departments including marketing, operations, QA. Everybody gets a voice and a seat at the table.

It’s not that you’re going to work on a FPS for two years and not see the engineering department or not see the design department and the game comes together in pieces. We’re all part of that whole process and we celebrate that whole process together. Amanda.

Yeah. So I would say to ditto what Carmen said for sure, but for me, one of the things that really stands out as to what I love about the studio is it’s very much the people. I absolutely love the people that I work with.

I have an amazing team like Carmen and other people within the studio that absolutely love what they do and you can see that every single day. Things are going to change in regards to what you work on each day, but hopefully the people won’t too much. So, for me, every day, excuse me, every day, I get to get up and have a chance to work with some amazing people, and I absolutely love that.

And to Carmen’s point, too, that servant leadership for me, I was coming from a very large university where my voice wasn’t heard. It wasn’t valued in that same way. And that was something that was really important to me when I was looking for a new opportunity.

And that’s one of the things I definitely love about the studio is every voice is heard, every voice is valued. From the very, you know, interns that are, you know, brand new right out of school all the way to definitely Jesse. But there’s not a separation in that regard where interns can’t connect and talk with.

We have an open door policy. Anyone can go talk with anyone at any point. In fact, lunches, Jesse and everyone else is often around and sit down and just have lunch and connect and chat.

And that’s one of the things that I love about this studio is it’s very supportive of everyone and everyone is valued. That’s very validating really. All right, we have one more question and I know it’s going to be an easy one for you to answer.

Do you have opportunities in other states other than Pittsburgh? Great question. Unfortunately we do not.

So we have chosen as a studio about a year ago to realize really there’s so much value in being together in the studio. So much learning, so much growth, so much collaboration that happens. So as a studio in regards to full-time opportunities, internships, fellowships, they are on site in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

So with that being said, I also want you to know Pittsburgh’s actually a really cool city and there’s a lot of great things that are happening. It’s actually a very young city. We have 10 other colleges and universities that are within the city.

So, there’s a lot of college students, over, I believe, 200,000, if not more college students in the city of Pittsburgh. So many different neighborhoods, so many great places to eat. And it’s also very affordable.

If you’re looking at lots of bigger cities, New York City, LA, Atlanta, Chicago, we are so much cheaper. So, it’s also very affordable, which makes it really much easier for you to kind of make that adjustment and change. You can actually buy a house in our in our city, which is not necessarily the case in a lot of other cities as well.

So, just a little push for Pittsburgh, too. And I’ll just one really quickly to that. And part of the reason why we only have this location is Jesse, as well as the studio, we have strong ties to the community.

We do volunteering work in the community. We have an open house once a year where we open the studio to the community. All of you are invited.

Sign up for that newsletter. If you can make it, we’d be happy to see you. We also do a lot of things within CMU and engaging with the next generation of change makers like yourselves around our area.

And again, as Amanda said, is very affordable. There’s lots to do from the arts, music, and other areas of entertainment, festivals. And I will say though, I warn you, we get snow.

So, if you’re coming from a place that’s warm and you don’t know what that looks like, we get that stuff. Check it out on the YouTube or, you know, Googles if you haven’t seen it. Or Steeler games.

Yeah. Sports is huge. And I mean huge.

Pittsburgh Penguins. Penguins. Yeah.

All right. Well, with that, we’ve come to the end of our session. I can’t believe it.

So, one of the things Amanda said that what she loves about Shell Games are the people, and I’m going to echo that. Amanda and Carmen, it’s always a delight to be with you. I love every moment that I spend with you guys, and it’s just so much fun.

So, thank you so much for being here with us. Students, please remember to feed fill out the feedback form because you know we value your feedback and we need to hear from you so that we know how to make this better and better and better every year. And otherwise, let’s take a moment to hear from our host Bobby D.

Thank you for joining us in this set. Please take a moment to complete a brief survey to share your feedback. Remember how valuable feedback is.

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